LSE MsC Theory and History of International Relations?

[Kevin1990]

I am an American who has been applying to a couple of grad programs in Britain.

I was recently admitted to UCL's Security Program the other week.

I orginally applied to the LSE's International Relations MsC but was declined. However, the other day I was given offer to my 2nd choice program at LSE which is a joint program between their International History and International Relations Dept(s) called the MsC in the Theory and History of International Relations. It looks like a hybird of the two and also appears fairly new. However, given those dept rankings and the LSE name I figure it can't be half bad.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me more if there is anyone out there knowledable about this?

Thank you!

[Nickman20]

Hello, 

I wanted to ask you what your GPA was? I am also applying to LSE and IR and wanted to know if I would receive a similar result. 

 

Also: I would 1000000000% go to LSE if you were planning a career in foreign service/academia/NGO/Government

[ExponentialDecay]

What do you hope to achieve with this degree?

The LSE name is nice, but the name isn't going to make your career. They graduate a lot of students from a lot of masters every year, and whilst some of these masters are well-known and place well, others are kinda riding on their coattails and don't seem to offer their graduates consistent value-added in terms of career progression. Firstly, for things that are true across all LSE programs, it's an expensive program in an expensive city that lasts 9 months, which doesn't give you much time to build relationships with professors, network, intern, and so on. Secondly, as regards the program, it's a new program with a kooky name that doesn't seem to build any skills beyond the general paper-writing and critical thinking. I know a lot of people who got quantitative masters at LSE, whether out of undergrad or after work experience, who placed into top PhD programs or got nice jobs at top-tier places. I also know a lot of people (no, really, they graduate a lot of people every year) who got their LSE masters in a frou frou discipline, which run the gamut from, like, migration studies to the aforementioned IR, and their careers have not been straightforward. They've mostly had to go back to their country of citizenship, especially if, on top of the frou frou degree, they don't have an existing network of contacts in the UK, and they had to do a lot of extra legwork or extra help to get their career rolling, to the point where I'm not sure that getting the prestigious degree was any benefit over getting any old degree. I'm not sure that, if you want a career in the US, it is not detrimental to get your degree outside of the States. It's a great option if you want to experience London and have money to burn, but if it's going to cause you significant financial strain, you're probably better off going for a different option.

Edited April 5, 2017 by ExponentialDecay